Chapter 3-Vocabulary

Vocabulary instruction has changed over the years. I believe that effective vocabulary instruction consists of using the new words learned in many different ways rather than simply memorizing the word and definition. I found it interesting that vocabulary becomes much more demanding in the higher grade levels. I have always thought that children learn more the most amount of words that they will ever learn in the first few years of their life. However, when content areas are explored more in depth, more complex vocabulary comes into play. This makes instruction much more complex since teacher have to explain vocabulary before even talking about the subject matter itself. I think it is important to make sure that the vocabulary is understood before continuing to dive into the content. There are many different learning strategies mentioned in the book that will help students learn vocabulary more efficiently. One of these strategies that I really liked was the one mentioned in the example. When David learned a new word he added it to his electronic vocabulary journal. I really like the idea of creating a personal word list. This would be somewhat like a personal word wall. Perhaps the class could compile a word wall from all of their own personal vocabulary words.
           As I was reading in the text, it reminded me of a concept we learned in a seminar that we attended last week. We learned that social language is very different than academic language. Academic language takes longer for students to acquire than social language because there are not as many opportunities to apply the learned vocabulary in academic language.  As the Fisher and Frey text pointed out, if students do not understand vocabulary words then they are likely to struggle in content areas. As I continued to read I noticed that this chapter also discusses exactly what we talked about in our ELL seminar. For students who are learning English as a second language, it can be hard for them to understand content area vocabulary. Teachers often assume that students are proficient English speakers because they may hear them using social language to talk to their peers.
          Since the need for more complex vocabulary increases during the secondary years of school it is important for teachers to pace their teaching and use a variety of strategies across all content areas. The same strategies used in lower grades should not be taken for granted in the higher grades. Teachers should always provide opportunities for students to use vocabulary words in multiple ways. The more experience that students have with a variety of words and ways to use those words, the more prepared they will be to learn the content.